Special Gift
by sandstone24
Summary: Bella spends Easter with her favorite vampire.


It was early when I woke, barely sunrise. Spring break was here. Edward took me to our meadow for a picnic.

"Were helping Esme with some things. Do you want to come back with me?"

"Sure." It was one of my favorite places to be.

Edward drove me to the Cullen mansion.

"It's Easter tomorrow." Edward mentioned casually.

"I used to celebrate Easter when I was a little girl."

"Esme loves Easter."

We walked inside. There was a lot of medal baskets stacked in the hall. They were very pretty. They shimmered with little glass beads that decorated them. Were they really glass? Edward walked us into the conference table room. My eyes widened. The long wooden table was covered with very large eggs, almost as big as a football. I blinked, there was also paints lined up on the table with an artist pallet. It looked like one of those old wood pallets someone like Da Vinci would have used. The eggs were really white. One of them was painted solid blue. Where had they gotten fake eggs that were so big? Edward grinned at my expression.

"Hi Bella." Esme gave me a hug. "I'm glad you came."

Edward laughed. "Esme loves to recruit help."

Esme smiled. "Maybe you can help us to get Edward to paint an egg this year."

Edward rolled his eyes.

"Where did you get some that were so big?"

"There Ostrich eggs.''

My eyes widened. "There real!"

Edward chuckled. "Esme likes to collect them."

Alice brought in more eggs. They were painted with bright and rainbow colors.

"Alice likes to help Esme paint." Edward helped Alice display them. "I'll help with Emmett this year but no promises."

Esme's eyes narrowed. "I won't like that at all."

"Emmett?" I asked.

Edward grinned. "Emmett likes to juggle them, last year he kept it up for quite a while."

I tried to picture that.

"He didn't break them, but it was close." He set one egg down in the middle of the table. It was the biggest one. It had a hole in the top. The egg was empty.

There were some beautifully painted ones, like scenic paintings. One looked like the night sky with the moon and stars. One egg looked like a desert, with green cactuses, a sunset with orange and yellow colors, very bright.

"Do you want to do some?" Esme offered.

"I couldn't."

"Oh, please Bella, it would be fun." Alice chimed.

"I couldn't paint them like that. What do you do with them?"

"We donate them." Esme was pouring some colors on the pallet. "I need help filling them."

"What do you put in them?"

"Mostly confetti and _other things_ …..Sometimes we put gifts in them, and leave them for people or children to find."

"Ok." I pulled a chair out to sit down.

"We don't get to close to humans. We usually just leave them places." "In fact you could help with that too.'' Alice was using a paint brush with green paint on a white egg.

Edward left us to our project. He had said he was going to get a bite to eat. I didn't want to know what he meant by that.

I was painting my egg with yellow spots. Nothing compared to what they were painting. They painted swiftly and mixed the colors effortlessly. Alice balanced one of the eggs on her finger, for a certain angle. Esme was painting stripes on her egg. I was wondering how she could paint such perfect stripes on her egg, so perfectly measured. I guess vampires could be natural artist as well. Alice was painting African animals on her egg. I added more yellow with the brush; it was a big giant ostrich egg. I had never painted an egg that was so big. The last time it was little eggs, or regular chicken eggs. I did spend a two week visit in Forks when I was a child, it was Easter. I remembered that one day; I had tried to make eggs with Jacob. We had tried to make Easter eggs all by ourselves. We were so little. We just boiled them and then painted them. They hadn't been confetti eggs.

They filled one with pieces of torn paper. They put some shiny glitter powder in one. Little shiny confetti that was Easter shapes in another. They put rice in a very pink looking one. They glued paper on the top of the egg to keep what was inside it in. It looked like the paper was kind of thin for the eggs.

Jasper came in. He brought in a black small black bag and set it on the table.

I helped Esme hold an egg while she filled it. Alice was putting money in hers. What was she going to do with that?

"Do you still need the supplies?" Jasper asked with a serious expression.

Esme looked at him oddly. "Yes."

He emptied the bag. A bunch of little tiny eggs rolled out onto the table.

"Jasper." Esme chastised.

"I'm sorry Esme, they were out of everything else, and this is all they had left." He laughed.

"You naughty boy." But she looked happy again.

"I can't believe you decided on quail eggs." Alice smiled.

"It was the only adequate substitute." He said in a martyred tone.

I put one of the quail eggs right next to the ostrich egg. The difference was extreme.

Alice giggled.

Edward came back in. Esme asked him to make some "deliveries."

After some disappointment he agreed.

"Very well!"

He conceded when, I agreed to go with him.

….

Edward took me to Port Angeles.

"We'll go to the library." He counted and spoke as he drove (over the speed limit.)

"Library?"

"We donate to the libraries sometimes."

"Do they use them?"

"Yes, they make for a good decorative piece."

Seeing the egg I believed that was true.

The library accepted it. It had been placed, on the front desk, right in the Check out.

"They liked it?"

"Yes, she was very happy with it." Edward said absentmindedly.

The librarian had been very happy talking to us, or specifically Edward. I had seen how happy she was to agree to take the egg, with Edward asking. He hardly needed to be persuasive. Not that the egg wasn't a magnificent piece of artwork.

There was a large fountain with benches around it. Edward pulled up near. There was a stretch of lawns to it. There was a man sitting on one of the benches. His cloths was tattered, he looked weary.

"He hasn't eaten in three days..."

I looked over at Edward. He surely had peered into the man's mind.

The man looked tired and badly dressed. He looked homeless. He was just sitting on the park bench looking around, watching the birds and people.

"I'll go." Edward assured me.

"I want to do it."

Edward raised his eyebrow.

I held the midnight blue egg carefully.

I took the egg and walked across the grass over to him. He looked up at me, kind of strange. I set the egg in front of him, and then ran back to the car. I jumped back in. Edward drove a little ways and then drove back around.

He was holding the egg, looking at it curiously. For a moment I thought he was going to break it, then he tore the paper off the top. He turned the egg upside down and tilted it towards his hand. One of the twenties fell into his palm. His eyes widened. He started looking around. We got down so he couldn't see us. He started to look inside the egg again. Edward drove away.

We went to the park next. I put the eggs down on the ground around the trees where the children were playing. We brought the striped and spotted eggs for the kids. Edward kept his distance while I gave them out. The children were opening them, finding stickers, candies, and lollypops and little toys. One child raised his arms in the air, about to throw an egg.

"Don't break them." One of the parents said.

One of the mother's thanked me. I smiled at her. They were so happy and fascinated with the creations. I put two more of the eggs down on the sidewalk, including the one I painted, in front of the children, and then went back to Edward's car.

Edward grinned at me. . "They liked you."

"That was fun."

…..

Edward drove me home; it was right before dinner.

"I'll come in later." Edward drove off, I'm sure just to come right back on foot.

I cooked dinner for Charlie. He was sitting at our little kitchen table.

"Do you want me to buy some eggs for you, for Easter?" He asked awkwardly.

I was about to say I don't celebrate Easter anymore since, I was a kid. Instead I put my hand in my pocket.

"That's Ok dad.''

I put a handful of quail eggs in the center of the table. I had painted them different colors; I had more fun painting those than the ostrich eggs. My dad looked at them, and then laughed heartily.

"That's nice Bella.''

…..

I went inside my room. There was an egg on my bed, an ostrich egg.

I walked closer to see the colors. It was me… and the meadow. . The colors of the meadow shined from the egg. ..It looked like a little painting of me and Edward. I was lying down, up on my elbow, Edward was across from me, it was bright, and the sun was out. Had he painted this? There was a piano painted on one side of it. There was a little note on it.

 _ **Open carefully**_

I gently tore the paper off the top. It was a gift. Something wrapped up in thin delicate white fabric, a necklace. It was a gold chain with a crystal red heart. It twinkled.

"Do you like it?" Edward sat on my bed.

"Edward, I can't...'' my heart was beating faster.

" …. Don't say anything." He whispered.

Edward put the chain around my neck and latched the back. I could feel tears in my eyes.

"It's beautiful." "Thank you Edward."

"A beautiful jewel for beautiful Bella."

 **...**

 **AN: The crystal heart was actually a ruby, but Bella doesn't need to know that.**

 **Happy Easter!**


End file.
